Readers, Rebels, Visionaries: The Literary Sphere of Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev explores how the revolutionary ideology in India evolved, sustained, and broadened itself through a reading of and a critical engagement with ‘revolutionary’ or ‘protest literature’. Tracing the revolutionary movement and its impact on the Indian national movement in the early part of the twentieth century, this volume focuses on the 1920s, a period of intense intellectual ferment in India, when divergent viewpoints regarding Independence, its various aspects, and the ways to attain it were discussed and debated across the subcontinent.

Focusing on the literary works that two of India’s foremost revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh (1907–31) and Sukhdev (1907–31), engaged with, this volume highlights those texts and their reading contexts as significant formative influences that moulded the consciousness and credo of these two revolutionary icons. Friends since childhood, the two were also voracious readers, fluent in many languages. Their readings included not merely political and philosophical tracts and books but also a great deal of fictional literature. It is this reading of imaginative literature and its significance in the freedom struggle of India that is explored in the present book.

Contents:

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Spaces

1. Lahore: The City, the College, and the Cell
2. National College
3. The Cell

Part II: Readings

4. Ninety-Three (1874)
5. Anandamath (1882)
6. Mother (1906)
7. The Seven Who Were Hanged (1908)
8. King Coal (1917)

Part III: Readings: A Coda

9. Debate, Defiance, Dialogue, and Dissent

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index